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Name: Eric Jay
Location: Oceanside, CA
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Can You Say: Plummet? Sure you can...

     I have not so much to say, other than to say it's about time reality caught up with perception...is the average voter seeing the truth rather than the MSM 'Cinderella President' put forth?  (Update, don't know why but the graphic portion is not loading very well, a large blank spot, so I deleted the graph, go to the link below.)
 
 
     Do you need more proof that voters are starting to see the forest for the trees? Via Drudge Report, Gallup: Obama Hits New Low. I know, I know, polls have no meaning...
 
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Rep. Conyer's On Reading A Bill: Another Argument For Part Time Legilators

     I am appalled at the lack of duty our legislators feel toward their constituents. One reason that we send them off to Washington is that they are supposed to be knowledgeable and one reasonably assumes that at a minimum they would read what they vote upon. One example of our representatives not reading the bill put before them was the TARP 'stimulus bill.' Another bill with more than 1000 pages; we know how that has worked out. According to Congressman John Conyers that's what we have lawyers, besides we push it downhill; localities and states can then sort the mess out:
"Thousand-page bills, unread and indeed unwritten at the time of passage, are the death of representative government. They also provide a clue as to why, in a country this large, national government should be minimal and constrained. Even if you doubled or trebled the size of the legislature, the Conyers conundrum would still hold: No individual can read these bills and understand what he's voting on. That's why the bulk of these responsibilities should be left to states and subsidiary jurisdictions, which can legislate on such matters at readable length and in comprehensible language."  Rep. John Conyers before the National Press Club
    At the minimum we should demand that legislation be delayed until a) the legislator reads the bill and b) the legislation has been posted for a minimum period (based upon the length). This is disastrous let alone unacceptable. This is one way that a new bureaucracy is created and no one knows about it.
     Last night on Greta Van Susteren's show Congressman Mike Pence had the following to say:
What we've found so far, there -- it includes 33 entitlement programs, creates or expands or extends, 53 additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, bureaucracies the bill creates. It uses the word -- you'll like this from an attorney's perspective. It uses the word "shall" 1,683 times, representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates. That's up from an increase of 306 mandates in the discussion draft. (Emphasis mine)
     The rush is not because there is some crisis as the White House is wont to tell us, daily (nice tactic Rahm, straight from Alinksy's rules, perhaps?) I might add. the rush is simply to get it passed before the public is all the wiser let alone the Senators and Representatives. This is unacceptable and one can see that voter frustration is beginning to boil over! Seen the Claire McCaskill Town Hall meets the 'Tea Party?'
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Obama Foreign Policy Failure(s)

     Powerline has a post that basically says that the Obama Administration foreign policy is a failure, complete failure. The current trip to Israel by Middle East Envoy George Mitchell with hat in hand is merely the latest example. The Jerusalem Post had this to say:

Although no agreement was announced regarding the US demand for a settlement freeze, Israeli officials said the sides were "getting close" to "finding that common ground to enable progress."

      Our staunchest ally in years past is only "getting close," not even "close" to an agreement. The shift in policy by the current president has placed a strain on relations. What the Obama Administration has done is, basically, placed all of the Middle East players on the playing field as equals. His Egypt speech made that clear, his intent was to reach out to the Muslim world. Again, his efforts while noble are not effective. He has alienated Israel into a position that it can only be "getting close" to an agreement. In the end, they may simply decide to agree to disagree. Where does that leave us? Certainly, we are no closer to the Middle East peace that all presidents have sought.
     I believe that when the president made clear that he was going to sit down with any and all who were willing to meet. The impression then and perhaps now is that all leaders were/are the same and that he would meet with them without preconditions. Naturally, since he made the comments during the campaign he later back tracked and issued a more nuanced approach. Of course, he didn't mean without preconditions and certainly those talks wouldn't be at the presidential level.
     The first major foreign policy gaff was the Russian 'reset' debacle. The president needs some big win. He is suffering from a very bad week. Healthcare Reform is going nowhere fast and his comments regarding the police is still front and center of press coverage and the blogosphere. It seems that foreign policy isn't going to be a part of his bog win.
    
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Afghanistan: Victory, Another Forbidden Word?

     It wasn't enough for the Obama Administration to ban the use of 'Global War on Terror,' tossed for the politically correct 'overseas contingency operation, now Obama is reluctant to use the term 'victory.' Oh, Heaven forbid if we were to expect victory in the continuing global war. The war in Afghanistan may have ended for the United States but both al-Qaeda and the Taliban have continued in their quest to retake the country; the Taliban want certain victory so they can take over the government, returning to the status quo ante, whereas AQ just wants to kill the American infidels.
     On ABC News last Thursday the president made the following comment:
"I'm always worried about using the word victory, because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." Investor's Business Daily, Opinion Page,  Friday, July 24, 2009
     This is from the Commander in Chief, the man ultimately responsible for protecting America, the man in full charge of the Armed Forces. If victory is not the goal, then what, pray tell, is? If his point is that one cannot negotiate peace with "nonstate actors" what he says is somewhat understandable. It is not the best phraseology to be using when that very 'nonstate actor' will forever use the quote as a recruiting tool.
     For a guy who is supposedly the smartest guy around, whose prose was to bring about peace (his speech in Egypt(?)aimed at Iran had no great effect either), he has almost as much a penchant for gaffs as his vice president. The imbroglio that his rash comments regarding the Cambridge police (oh, sorry, he "calibrated" to make it clear that he was referring to 'police' in general, not much better) caused took center stage all weekend and any other 'news' was bumped to the third page. This is a very important matter to understand the president's thinking, as:

"...we are at something of a crossroads in Afghanistan. The toil, tears, sweat — and especially blood — have increased of late.

As a result, public displeasure is on the rise in Britain, Canada and Germany, which with their tens of thousands of troops are taking part in the U.S.-led coalition — the kind of coalition, by the way, that liberal Democrats consider absolutely vital before fighting wars against terror states.

Our allies could eventually pull out. So at a time like this, the job of the president is to remind them, and the American people, that we are in a world war against a network of evildoers."
Investor's Business Daily, Opinion Page,  Friday, July 24, 2009
 
     This is another example of what some might call 'on the job training.' President Obama does not seem to have a grasp of how to run, manage, let alone, lead this country at a time in which we face an enemy that is intent not only on destroying the United States (and her allies). I shudder to think of the consequences of a major attack on the homeland. This is an enemy bent on eradicating freedom, liberty and, yes, the pursuit of happiness. Another goal of our enemy is to establish a new Caliphate. I wonder if the president has an inkling of the magnitude (not to mention its patience) to which our enemy will go to meet its goals.
     We are now seeing the ill effects of the on the job training. An article by Fred Barnes, "Know-Nothing-in-Chief
There's no evidence Obama has even a sketchy grasp of economics," is worth a read.
     Elections have consequences and, unfortunately, the election of 2008 is no exception. I pray that the ill effects are not irreversible.
     I leave you with the following quotes, the first is from IBD's article and the other is widely known:
 
"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terrors, victory however long and hard the road may be — for without victory there is no survival."

~Winston Churchill, 1940 to the British people

 
We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
 
~George Orwell
 
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